As the days are numbered until the home opener inside the Nelson Center for the Junior Blues on Friday night, the city of Springfield really seems to be excited for the outlook and expectations on the new-look of the local franchise.
As the team was just four wins away from playing for the Robertson Cup last season (swept by St. Louis in the semi's), the team continues to be the longest-running franchise in the North American Hockey League. Although they ended the season better than most expected though, this season they are under new ownership and front office personnel.
The team is now under ownership of Dan Ferguson and FERZOW, LLC--who acquired the Junior Blues last April. The new head coach of the team now is Tony Zasowski. A lot of people, including myself, are excited to see this unit perform under his presence. The motto that Zasowski brings to the family is "The New Standard", which is an encouraging expression that has gotten some attention as of recent.
Last season the Junior Blues started the season off slow as they lost six of their first seven contests. As the season went on though, the unit got better and the team went on the make the playoffs as the third-seed because of losing just seven games in between the entire time of the months of January through March.
After upsetting the second-seeded Janesville Jets in the opening round in all five games, the national running-up Bandits from Saint Louis swept them in four games and ended the Joe Dibble era with a wimper--although it was an exciting season watching the likes of goalie Gabe Antoni and forward Kyle Cook (who both are now playing D1 hockey).
The new head coach brings a lot of winning to the table for our team, as he was coaching both the 16U and 18U San Jose Jr. Sharks--and in the 2010-2011 his 16U team won the North American Prospects Hockey League (PHL) title, and last season his 18U team won the title as well.
Despite him not having any coaching experience at the exact level of the Junior Blues, he still coached in a great learning ground for coaching at this level. This season the expectations are for an exciting, new brand of hockey from this team for the city. Springfield lost a lot of players from last season and are very relatively young--but also extremely talented.
Though a lot of people outside of the capital of Illinois involved in the NAHL don't have that high of expectations for this team this season, we do have one of the most storied franchises in the league as history speaks for itself. The Junior Blues are just one of seven teams to win multiple Robertson Cups'.
I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but speaking for myself and a lot of people that bleed Junior Blues' blue and gold, we are all just excited for hockey back in Springfield. Let's go Blues!
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